Press Release, 2.09.2026

Photo: Supreme Court of Russia / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Today, 2 September, Yabloko has filed a supervisory complaint with the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia against the ruling of 10 August and the appellate decision of 17 August, by which the registration of the party’s federal list for the State Duma elections was cancelled.

Yabloko believes that the courts of first instance and appeal committed fundamental violations that are systemic in nature and set a dangerous precedent for Russia’s entire legal system.

As the complaint notes, the courts’ rulings effectively legitimised the principle of imputing liability without regard to fault (so-called “objective imputation”), abolished the presumption of good faith, and violated the principles of legal certainty and proportionality. As a result, the justice system, which ought to guarantee against arbitrary rule, is being turned into an instrument of political purging.

The party stresses that the consequences of these rulings extend far beyond this particular election campaign. The approaches established by the Supreme Court could be used to remove other parties and candidates from elections, and threaten the foundations of the electoral system, freedom of speech, political competition and the right to judicial protection.

Yabloko believes it is precisely the Presidium of the Supreme Court that must correct these fundamental errors of law enforcement, prevent the country’s highest judicial body from being turned into an instrument of political purging, and restore trust in the judiciary as an independent and impartial arbiter.

In its supervisory complaint, the party asks the court to overturn the Supreme Court’s rulings of 10 and 17 August and to issue a new ruling — refusing Rodina party’s claim to remove Yabloko’s federal list from the elections in full.

It should be noted that the law does not set any shortened deadline for considering a supervisory complaint on account of the election campaign, nor does it require the Supreme Court to reach a decision before polling day.

It should be noted that, on 10 August, Supreme Court Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov heard Rodina’s claim and removed Yabloko’s list from the State Duma elections, despite the claimant’s absurd “arguments”. This set a precedent in contemporary Russian politics. A description of the “reasons” behind the Supreme Court’s ruling is available on Yabloko’s website.

A week later, on 17 August, a Supreme Court panel chaired by Judge Vladimir Zaitsev upheld the decision to remove the party’s list. On the eve of the hearing, Yabloko published three important pieces of material: analyses by the party’s Analytical Centre addressing the falsehood of claims about foreign funding of Yabloko, and the party’s actual level of support. The third piece was a report by the party’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, which found that parliamentary parties had received more than 1 billion roubles from donors with traces of foreign funding.

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, called the Russian Supreme Court’s ruling “unprecedented in its destructive impact on the constitutional foundations of the electoral system, freedom of speech and creative expression, and fair political competition”.